entrancelogs | all that's left behind [closed]

Entry tags:

all that's left behind [closed]

Who: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanoff, Bucky Barnes, Pepper Potts, Lydia Martin, Darcy Lewis, Billy Kaplan, & Carol Danvers
Where: Starting in the hedge maze, then all around the mansion.
When: 05/11
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Steve is back from a year-long trip home and has a lot of people to catch up with. Possible spoilers for Age of Ultron within! This is a closed log, but if you want to be added to it, feel free to contact me.
The Story:
One moment, Steve is in the middle of a training session at their new facility. It's what most of his days are made up of lately, him and Natasha putting their new group of Avengers through their paces. It's all about learning to work together as a team, to act as one unit instead of six separate entities. It's been going well, all four of their new additions ready and willing to show up every day and put their all into it --

But the next thing he knows, he's looking at nothing but green. Steve's grip on his shield tightens as he spins in a quick circle, only to find that Natasha is there with him. But it's just the two of them, and it takes a few seconds of puzzled staring before he realizes that they're in a maze. A hedge maze.

There's only one place he knows of that has a hedge maze, and it's a place he'd forgotten about entirely until this exact moment. To have a year's worth of memories crash back into him all at once is almost enough to send Steve off-balance, and he definitely doesn't have the coherency to speak as it rushes back. This place, the events, the people. Bucky is here. Bucky, who he's spent a year searching for back home to no avail, had been right here all along. Trapped in time. Peggy had been here too, and then there are those who he met and befriended here: Pepper and Darcy, Sansa and Evelyn, Lydia and Carol.

He snaps his head to look at Natasha when he remembers that Bruce had been here too, and they had found something here together, carefully working their way into a relationship long before it happened back home. They'd had the peace and quiet and security to actually make something of it here, whereas at home Natasha has been doing her best to accept that Bruce took off without her. (To keep her safe, Steve knows, but it's not like it stings any less that way.)

So many people had described to Steve what it would be like to go home and then return here, but even with all that he hadn't really been prepared for it. He rubs at the side of his head with his free hand as he finally finds words. "Looks like the two of us are doomed to come and go from this place together." At least, that's what Steve figures happened, but he'd better be sure. "What's the last thing that you remember?"

If it's training their team after cleaning up Stark's hugest mess, then they'll be in business. Or on the same page, at the least.

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Steve and Natasha are nothing if not adaptable. Being dropped into this place again out of nowhere had been enough to throw both of them for a loop, though Natasha may have hidden that a little better than Steve did. He doesn't yet know how long they've been gone, but it's usually a week here in Wonderland, and isn't that enough for a headache?

He'd like to find out for sure, though. Everything in the mansion looks exactly as he remembers it, including his room. Dodger isn't here, but Steve finds his phone sitting innocently on his desk. He snatches it up, frowning to himself when he finds a few messages from Bucky that Steve had obviously not been present to answer.

He goes to check the room next door first, mainly because a face-to-face meeting would be better than an impersonal text message, but Bucky isn't there. Steve could search the rest of the mansion for him, but he doesn't have the patience for that.

He needs to see him as soon as possible. It's been a year, a year in which Steve hadn't even known for sure if Bucky was dead or alive, a year full of cold leads and dead ends and a whole lot of uncertainty and disappointment and -- if he's really going to be honest with himself -- fear, for what might have become of his friend.

That question is still going to exist for Steve when he goes home again, but for now, he knows that Bucky is here and that's all that he cares about.

So he returns to his room, sits himself on his bed, and sends out a text: I'm back. Where are you?

Maybe it had been silly for Steve not to expect such an emotional response from Bucky at his return, but he's still reeling from it even after they part ways so that Steve can check in with everyone else. While he could make an announcement to the whole of Wonderland to let everyone know that he's back, he's not sure that he's up for that right now. Even after a few hours of letting it sink in, he still feels as if his brain is overstuffed with too many memories and too much information. Trying to field a flood of questions on top of that is just too much right now.

No rest for the wicked, though, which means that instead of spending the rest of the day in his room with Bucky and Dodger, Steve goes about reaching out to those who have probably spent the last week worrying about him and what he might have returned to back home.

The answer to that question being, it could have been better, but it also could have been much worse.

Some people he may need to text because he can't expect to find everyone so easily, but in Pepper's case she's literally right next door. She could be in the gallery too, but he decides to go with the easiest route and just knocks on the door to her room. He's pretty sure he can hear some movement in there...

"Pepper? It's Steve."

After his conversation with Pepper, Steve's pretty sure that he needs a break. There's been a lot of explanations, a lot of answering questions, a lot of talking about the long string of Tony Stark's mistakes and how they'd fixed them. If anything is going to give him the boost that he needs to face the rest of the day, it's some food from the eighth floor diner.

Only a week has passed, so he's been told, and yet there's still some relief that hits when he finds that the diner is exactly as he remembers it. It probably shouldn't be a comfort, that everything has stayed the same, but when he considers that he'd once woken up only to find out that seventy years had gone by, it makes sense.

He takes a seat at one of the booths and orders a ludicrous amount of food, although it's nothing that his metabolism won't be able to handle. He hasn't actually changed out of his uniform yet, not having found the time or inclination.

It's possible that someone will come across him here, though for now he focuses on sipping at his milkshake and snacking on some fries as he waits for the rest of the food to come.

After his large lunch and his chat with Lydia, Steve returns to his room and takes a shower, peeling off his uniform to change into civilian wear. This room isn't home and never had been, but it's still a familiar place and after he's done with his shower he eases down onto his bed -- not to nap, but just to rest.

He lasts a few minutes before the guilt sets in as he remembers everyone else he still needs to contact.

It takes a few seconds to sift through all the people he'd been close to here, to recall who had gone home for good and who had remained in Wonderland. He scrolls through the contacts in his phone and happens upon Darcy's name.

They didn't see each other on a daily basis here, but they did keep in touch, so she may have noticed his absence. It occurs to Steve that he has no idea where she'd been during that whole mess with Ultron, but he can only hope that she and Jane had remained safe. Thor would have seen to that.

So he shoots her a quick text: Hey, Darcy. Not sure if you noticed that I was gone, but I'm back now. Just wanted to let you know.

His chat with Darcy eventually ties up and Steve takes that time to review some of the network posts, at least the ones from today. As it turns out, he's not the only one who'd returned to Wonderland today. Bruce is here, and while he may not remember his previous time in Wonderland, he's still here. Natasha has probably seen that by now, and while that conversation could go any number of ways, Steve will check in with her about it later.

He does his best to greet Bruce, relieved to learn that he's at least from the same point as him and Natasha. It's kind of nice to have someone else who's caught up, even if the price had been Bruce's Wonderland memories. It's definitely a sobering realization, to have it reinforced yet again how easily it can all be taken away from them.

Also on the network is a strange man with a more than striking resemblance to Bucky, and Steve spends maybe longer than he should talking to him and sorting out the confusion there. It's hard to believe it's just a coincidence, but with multiple worlds out there, maybe it's just a probability thing. Statistically speaking, there are going to be at least two people with the same face.

It's pretty obvious by this point that Steve isn't going to get a break today, but maybe staying busy is for the best. He pockets his phone for the moment and heads out of his room again, wandering the mansion for no real reason except to re-familiarize himself after a year spent away.

It's as he's walking down the fourth floor corridor, somewhere near the theater, that he spots none other than Billy Kaplan. Steve may not be as close to him as he is to some of the other people here, but he still feels protective of him, and it's particularly good to see him again with the knowledge that back home, he doesn't even exist. This is his only chance to know Billy, and he'd like to make the best of it.

So Steve approaches, lifting one hand in a greeting.

"I'd say long time no see, but I think that's probably a matter of opinion."

It's been a long, long day, and it's on the later side when Steve drops by the training area. He has no idea how long Wonderland will keep him this time, but what he can say with certainty is that he wants to put more of an effort into forming a team here. None of his newest recruits are actually here, but there are still plenty of people within Wonderland who are worthy of being called an Avenger.

His plan is to take stock of the training room and see if he needs to make any changes in it. He isn't expecting anyone to be there at this hour, but on his way down the hall he hears the distinct sound of fists pummeling a punching bag into oblivion.

It's a sound that he's pretty familiar with.

He pokes his head in and finds Carol there, hard at work. Speaking of honorary Avengers, she may as well top the list.

It's a toss-up whether or not she noticed he was gone, but he calls out to her anyway. For him, it's been a year since they last saw each other, and while he hadn't had the memories to miss her, there's a retroactive sort of missing going on.

"Do you ever sleep?" he teases from the doorway.

It's disorienting, the sudden change in environments, and like Steve, Natasha is overwhelmed, unbalanced - enough that she takes an unsteady step forward, hand coming up to brace herself against Steve's back. He's solid and real and warm and it's an anchor she needs as memories crash into her head once more and her brain tries to sort through them, conflicting timelines making her temples throb with the effort. Her brain is designed to compartmentalize things like this, however. She can't even claim this is the first time it's happened, a curtain coming down, a wall broken through, and suddenly there is another life, another her, rushing in like an oncoming tide, leaving her to sort through what is real and what is not. Or to acknowledge that maybe it all is, as impossible as that occasionally seems.

Who and what she is is a fluid thing, after all. Changing and adapting as the situation demands. Never just one thing at any given moment, as she'd tried to express to Steve... how long ago had that been now? Her brain wasn't entirely certain.

What she was certain was that she'd been here before, despite having forgotten it. Had been here just days ago, despite the way part of her mind is telling her that's impossible. Here she'd still been dealing with a loss that had wounded deeply, had her aching and bleeding for days, although she'd done her best to hide it. It was something she did out of necessity, and having that life come back now, those memories come back with the full force of knowledge and emotion compounded on what had just happened back in her world...

It made her legs feel weak, her hand tremble slightly, and it took all her strength of will to stay on her feet and not drop to her knees. She couldn't afford that, not here, not now. Not yet.

His question cuts through the turmoil of her thoughts and she takes a deep breath, trying to steady herself before answering, her eyes still clenched shut before she forces them open, takes stock of her surroundings, searching for any sign of threat.

"Here, or there?" she asks, because that feels like a valid question at the moment, considering the double set of memories trying to sort themselves into a recognizable order in her mind. It also gives her another moment to gather herself, to pull her shattered control back around her like a careful cloak.

"Vision was about to knock you on your ass, if that helps matters any." Training's been going well; the new team shows promise. They don't have experience yet, but they're quick learners. And unlike the old team, this one doesn't have as many bad solo habits to unlearn to make them a cohesive unit.

It's still not quite the same, however.

When Natasha's hand settles on his back, Steve squares his shoulders and straightens, ready to let her lean on him as much as she needs to. Even if it's just a small touch, when it comes to Natasha even the smallest of gestures can have a lot of meaning behind them. He's just as off-kilter as she is, honestly, but the two of them are trained to adapt to changing environments and to recover quickly, even when it feels like the earth itself is shifting under them.

As Natasha's touch wavers on his back, Steve turns himself to better face her, grabbing for her wrist to hold it tight between his gloved hand. It's a way of forming a connection, to remind her that no matter how turbulent everything is right now, he's still there with her.

Eventually Natasha opens her eyes and they've got all the sharpness that they should as she takes in any possible threats around them. (But it seems like they're alone out here, far away from the mansion that he knows is just over the crest.) He's seen that look on Bucky's face plenty of times too, and it reminds him just how similar they both are.

Bucky -- he needs to find him. But first he needs to find his feet and help Natasha do the same. He releases her wrist and slides his hand down to grasp her palm instead. Neither of them are usually this physical with each other, not like this, but it's been a long couple of weeks and this is just the icing on the cake.

Before Steve can answer her question, Natasha gives him the response he'd been looking for. They match, up to the exact moment, and that's enough to bring a tentative smile to Steve's lips. "Hey, I was preparing to dodge out of the way. You have taught me a few things, you know."

Finally he lets go of her, activating the magnets in his suit so that his shield can sit on his arm instead. "I guess we need to find our way out of here and then figure out how long it's been." A year, in their case, but the amount of time that's passed in Wonderland is probably much less.

"What's that saying about old dogs and new tricks?" she quips back as she straightens once more, letting her stance fall into one of alert casualness. She's dressed in her tac-ops gear, an upgrade since what she's had here last, but maybe that will be useful. Neither one of them know how long they've been gone, or what might have changed in that time.

"I'd say I never expected to see this place again, but that would require remembering it, I suppose." She sounds about as happy about that as can be expected. She lifts a hand, shades her eyes as she scans their surroundings once more. "I suppose it's a relief it still looks like I remember, now that I can."

No hungry dragons running amok, at least.

Billy is on his way back up to his room from the theater. Teddy had sent him to raid the movies because they were planning on spending the night in. Apparently Billy had been training too much and Teddy was demanding date night. He was in charge of snacks, Billy was in charge of movies.

He was a little surprised to see Steve walking towards him but he immediately broke into a smile. He'd been upset to hear Natasha and Steve had disappeared, even if their stuff was still here and that usually meant they would be back, sometimes Wonderland would throw them curve balls. "Hey! Welcome back. I think you can get away with long time so see, its been about a week here I think. How long were you home for?"

Everything that Natasha says about Wonderland and their memories pretty much sums up how bizarre and mindnumbing this entire experience is. It does add to the theory that their memories of this place aren't actually erased so much as locked away until they come back here, although that isn't the case every time.

It's really enough to give anyone a headache and Steve isn't ready to start picking it apart right now. There will probably be plenty of time for that. He recalls Wonderland having a lot of quiet days with not enough to do.

"There's no telling if there's some kind of event going on right now or not," Steve says as he sets one hand on a wall of the hedge maze and starts to lead them out. It hopefully won't take too long. "Let's hope there's not. I could probably go the rest of my life without having to go through one of those again."

But it's something they'll both have to adjust to now that they're back.

"On the bright side, there are people who are here who we'd never get to see back home, so..." He'll focus on that. Whether it's because those people are from different universes or just different times (or avoiding him back home), the point still stands.

"Gee, I wonder who you could possibly be referring to," she drawls, flashing him a sideways glance full of wry humor. Although he's right. There are people here she knows don't exist back in her world. People who meant a lot to her. People she would have missed, had she remembered them. She hoped they were here, hoped they were still alright.

She eyes the hand he layed on the wall of the maze and gives a quiet scoff, shaking her head at him. "That will take too long," she argued, shifting her position in front of him, facing him as she eyes the top of the hedge. Give me a boost up, would you? I just need to see where we are and I can get us out."

She may have spent some time memorizing this particular maze, just in case.

He’s caught her at a good time; Pepper has high heels in hand, having been on her way to a chair so she could put them on. Instead the knock gets her attention, followed by the voice, and suddenly she’s got nowhere more important to be. The shoes fall forgotten as she goes over to the door, her smile bright as she sees for herself that yes, it really is Steve standing there.

“You’re back!” That’s relief enough, but there also aren’t any immediate bruises she can see, no scratches or signs of harm. It hardly matters that he’s dressed as Captain America—she’s just glad to see him safe, glad for Bucky that she’d been right to believe they would return in a week, glad that she hasn’t lost someone else to the cycle of arrivals and vanishings in Wonderland.

Which is why she’s quick to throw her arms around him in a tight hug.

Of course Bucky had been the first person Steve had thought of when it came to that statement, but he's not the only one. Sansa and Lydia and Evelyn... the list goes on when it comes to people who he can only know here in Wonderland. In some ways, it's a relief that he hadn't spent the last year missing them, but it's also disconcerting, that his care and concern for so many people could be locked away so easily.

Natasha doesn't seem interested in getting out of this maze in the obvious way, so it looks like they're going to end up busting their way through instead. Steve can't say he's that shocked that she's impatient right now. He also wants to make sure that Wonderland hasn't fallen into complete disarray in their absence -- and he wants to figure out who's still here.

"Yes ma'am," he says jokingly as he detaches his shield again and then holds it in front of him at waist-level, creating a step for her to use to get up onto the hedges. Once she steps onto the shield, he'll boost her up. They've done this kind of thing so many times that it's second nature by now.

It's true that Steve is in much better shape than his first arrival to Wonderland, when he'd been suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and other injuries, and his uniform had been too ripped and ruined and bloodied to try and salvage. He's got all his gear now, which might seem like a small thing, but it adds some kind of legitimacy to everything he does.

Yes, the stars and stripes have grown on him.

Of course Pepper would be relieved. Steve's felt the same way in the past, when he'd been the one waiting in Wonderland for friends to return. The hug is still not entirely expected, but Steve's built solidly enough that he doesn't sway when Pepper flings her arms around him.

He left his shield in his room, so his hands are free to return the hug. He makes it a tight one, but not so tight that he risks hurting her. His body shudders with a laugh and he doesn't let go just yet. "I take it you missed us?"

Steve eyed the stack of movies that Billy had in one hand and figured that he'd been planning some quality time with Teddy. He didn't want to get in the way of that, but it made sense that Billy had a few questions for him too. Even if they were from different worlds, there were enough similarities to make anyone curious.

"Thanks. I think," Steve said with a shrug. It wasn't really a good thing that he'd been sent back here, but Steve had been focusing on the bright sides, and Billy happened to be one of them.

"It's been about a year. This whole time thing is pretty screwy." Not that Steve hadn't had to deal with it plenty of times in the past, but it wasn't something you ever really got used to.

“Not at all; whatever would give you that idea?” Definitely not the way that Pepper too still holds to him. Her fingers tighten against the fabric of that uniform, colors and shapes almost familiar save for the details. It had been easy to push off her fear, to keep herself busy enough that it never amounted more to a niggling worry in the back of her mind. Yet simply walling it away makes it no less real, no less potent now that the joy she feels at his return forces her to see just how scared she’d been of losing him in the first place.

They can’t stand in her doorway forever though. Eventually, after enough minutes have gone by for Pepper to be convinced Steve won’t disappear in the time it takes her to pull away, she takes a slow and careful step back. “You said us; so Natasha’s back too?”

She motions for him to come inside, certain Steve wouldn’t have come over if he hadn’t expected to spend some time there. Quick to take a seat for herself, she waits for him to get comfortable before she broaches the question he must be expecting. The difficult part of it is knowing where to begin; how long has he been gone, how much has happened back home—

Is Tony okay?

“You look like you were ready to go out on a mission.” Instead she motions to the uniform he so proudly wears. He has to know what she wants to ask, even as she puts on a small grin. “It looks good on you.”

Billy nodded. The last thing Steve probably wanted was to be back but he was glad to see him none the less. "A year? Wow that's- well at least it wasn't three? Teddy was home for three years when he left. How was home?" He asked cautiously. It might not be the same world he's from but...well he knows what it's like to be an Avenger. Sort of.

"Did Natasha come back with you? She disappeared at the same time." And wasn't that interesting that Wonderland would send them back home together.

"I've got big plans to do it when I'm dead." She catches the bag and shoots him a grin. She hasn't quite destroyed this one yet, mostly because she was holding back, but even so, it's looking like it's on its last legs. "Of course, with my luck, that won't give me more than a nice nap before something throws me back in action."

It's not that she doesn't take death seriously. She's lost people that will never come back, and it is tragic.

She's just also aware that it's really not always the end. Especially when sometimes it feels like you're balancing precariously on the equal sign between E and mc squared. Dying is one of the many things Carol doesn't remember, but she's read the reports of her life. Hard to kill doesn't come close to covering it.

"Good to see you back in action, Cap. Sorry the trip home couldn't be more permanent."

It's true that it might be strange if someone came down the hall and happened upon the two of them here, and Steve would prefer that they have a semi-private area in which to talk. Not that he'll be telling Pepper anything that he considers classified -- he doesn't subscribe to the Nick Fury method of keeping everyone in the dark, and never really has.

(Except for when he'd kept the whole Winter Soldier project from everyone here, but that had been different.)

"Yeah, I guess we left together and came back together." That's how it's worked for them since their first arrival here. For whatever reason, Wonderland has decided they're linked, but Steve doesn't mind it. He can't think of anyone who could better watch his back than Natasha.

Steve takes a seat in one of the cushy chairs in Pepper's room and makes himself as comfortable as he can. When she points out the uniform, a smile flashes across his face and he looks down at himself. "Yeah, thanks, it's an upgrade. Tony's responsible for it, actually." He looks back at Pepper when he says his name. She must be dying for information about him, but Steve doesn't have the best news.

Granted, it could be a lot worse. Pepper must be pretty used to her ex-boss screwing things up.

"I wasn't on a mission, though. Not too long ago we kind of saved the world... again, and it's been training session after training session since then. We were in the middle of one when we got pulled back."

Breaks were things that Lydia was finding harder to take, or rather Lydia was putting them off. Although the situation with Dean had been remedied, and there were currently no other threats, it didn't stop Lydia from keeping herself busy. She had her work in the clinic, her research into Wonderland, her studies in the library and now a more personal area of research - her abilities.

Whilst Lydia wasn't keeping herself contained to her room whilst she worked there hadn't been that many people that she'd seen or spoken with lately. Minus her late night trips to see Bucky - to study something else. It the growing feeling of hunger that had prompted her break over anything else, Lydia not realising just how long she'd been working. The library hadn't provided much help in Lydia's search for knowledge about banshee's, but the note she'd sent out to Wonderland had given some ideas. The notebook that she carried with her into the diner contained those ideas - and her initial thoughts on where to begin.

The food became a second thought when Lydia stepped into the diner. Finding Steve sat at one of the booths was not something that she'd expected. How long had it been since he'd gone? At least a week - a week was always the minimal time frame, and it didn't feel too long. Although Lydia had assured Bucky that he'd return there was a large part of her that worried that he wouldn't. She knew who he was - what he did, but what was his home like? What had he been doing? Lydia knew that if Steve ever permanently left that she'd miss him. He was someone that had become important to her after getting to know him, and selfishly she'd hate to lose that.

Lydia steps quickly over to his table, dropping herself into the seat opposite from him without warning or invitation. It's rude, but she's a little impatient. If he hadn't been sat down there might have been an impromptu hug.

"When did you get back?" Hi Steve.

"Yeah, and I know someone who was gone for nine years before coming back here," Steve admitted, his brow creasing with sympathy just at the thought of it. He only had a fraction of an idea of what Evelyn had gone through, and that was bad enough.

He nodded at the question about Natasha, since that one was easier to answer. "It looks like Wonderland thinks we should move around as a pair." Steve didn't really mind that, though. Better than having to go it alone.

Steve sent a glance up and down the hallway. "I can tell you about home, but we should probably find somewhere more comfortable to do it." He looked back to Billy and shrugged. "If you have the time for that, anyway."

It's tempting to step right in and finish off the punching bag for her, but Steve refrains for now. He does walk further into the room, though, considering Carol's words. Death can definitely be permanent, but Steve has seen enough examples of it being temporary to understand where she's coming from. (Bucky and Coulson being the most noteworthy examples.)

"That's definitely how it would work here," he points out, because right now Wonderland is all they should be concerning themselves with. It's taking a concerted effort to put himself back in the mindset after an oblivious year spent away from it.

Her apology earns a shrug. "It is what it is." He isn't going to complain or dwell on it, seeing how some people don't even get the luxury of a trip home.

"Looks like you all did a good job of holding up the fort around here. Although I hear I didn't miss much." Not even an event.

Steve doesn't find Lydia's approach and decision to join him rude at all. In fact, his face immediately brightens at the sight of her. Here is someone who he'd been forced to forget over the past year, but who he knows he would have missed if he'd had the knowledge to. Either way, it feels like a year since they've seen one another, and so if his reaction to her seems exaggerated, that would be why.

"Lydia," he greets, leaning forward in his seat slightly. "I got back this morning. It's good to see you."

As usual, Lydia has a notebook with her, and while Steve could ask her what she's researching this time around (little does she know, the man who had turned into a giant green monster is gone), he realizes that she'll probably have more questions for him.

"I forget, have you gone home and come back before? It's pretty disorienting." This still feels a little like some strange dream, like he'll wake up before long and find himself back in the training facility. Steve knows better, though, and that's the strangest part.

James has been taking every available opportunity to stay busy for the past week, and the day that Steve is due for return is no exception. He could be back days or weeks later than that, remembering everything or nothing, or his things could vanish the way Tony's had, all at once. He does his best not to expect anything. It's just a day like any other, even if he stops by the room to make sure Steve's phone is where he left it.

He spent the first half of the week on Steve's couch when he caught any sleep, but rough nights and long days have worn him down too much to deal with the constant, silent emptiness of the apartment. In last few days, he's only visited Steve's room long enough to check on it and pick up some of Dodger's favorite toys. Even at this hour of the day, the two of them are sprawled on the bed in James' 3rd floor safehouse, sound asleep.

With the week's classes out of the way, James had spent the better part of yesterday evening sparring with Thor. He's still got bruises along the knuckles of his right hand just from hitting the guy, and a handful of others that aren't anything serious. Mostly, he's just worn out, and he's sure he looks it. The phone buzzing on his nightstand doesn't wake him, but Dodger noses insistently at his face until he gets up to check it.

James groans and drags the phone into bed with him.

Even his handlers would be impressed at how quickly he goes from exhausted irritation to wide awake.

Steve is back. He remembers.

Stay there. I'm en route.

He pulls his boots and shirt on, then tucks the puppy under his arm so they can get back to the room faster. A part of him considers that this could be a trap of some kind, but the rest of him is too tired and relieved to care. He runs at full speed, taking the stairs a few at a time. It's only when they're a few paces from the door that he slows down and lets Dodger down, fighting his breathing back under control.

If there was any doubt in his mind as to who was behind the door, the puppy would have abolished it. It only takes Dodger a couple of sniffs to start barking excitedly. He bolts right through the moment James opens the door.

James follows at a more even pace, taking in all of the details at once. Steve's uniform is brand new, scuffed from use but still in good shape - he's fought in it recently, but he doesn't look injured.

He reaches for him without thinking, the moment he's close enough. He touches Steve's jaw like he still needs to make sure he's real.

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all that's left behind [closed]

for bucky barnes

for pepper potts

for lydia martin

for darcy lewis

for billy kaplan

for carol danvers

For the adorable dumbass wearing the american flag

you know you love him

she does. she'd be lost without him.

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spy mom and soldier dad 4 lyfe.

best partners

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